Musk merges his rocket and AI businesses into one company ahead of expected IPO this year – The Mercury News
By BERNARD CONDON and MATT O’BRIEN
NEW YORK (AP) – Elon Musk is merging his space exploration and artificial intelligence ventures into one company ahead of the company’s planned initial public offering later this year.
His rocket business, SpaceX, announced on Monday that it has bought xAI in an effort to help the world’s richest man manage rockets and artificial intelligence businesses. The deal will combine many of his offerings, including his AI chatbot Grok, his satellite communications company Starlink, and his communications company X.
Musk has repeatedly spoken about the need to accelerate the development of technologies that will allow data centers to work locally to solve the problem of overcoming the high costs of electricity and other resources in building and running AI systems in the world.
It’s a goal that Musk said in his announcement of the deal could be easier to reach with the combined company.
“In the long term, space-based AI is clearly the only way to scale,” Musk wrote on the SpaceX website on Monday, adding in reference to solar power, “It’s always sunny in space!”
Musk said in the SpaceX announcement that he estimates “that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest-cost way to produce an AI computer will be in space.”
It’s not a prediction shared by many other companies that build data centers, including Microsoft.
“I’ll be surprised if people move from the country to the bottom of the world,” Microsoft president Brad Smith told the Associated Press last month, when asked about alternatives to building data centers in the US amid public controversy.
SpaceX wouldn’t be the first to test the idea of putting AI data centers in space. Google last year unveiled a new research project called Project Suncatcher that will equip solar-powered satellites with AI computers.
Musk has used his control of many companies to consolidate operations at the front. His electric car business Tesla bought one of his companies, SolarCity, ten years ago. And he recently bought xAI his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Musk, who is worth an estimated $768 billion by Forbes, also owns a brain implant company called Neuralink and a tunnel drilling business called the Boring Company.
While pursuing space data centers, xAI is also moving quickly to expand on Earth. Mississippi officials last month announced the company would spend $20 billion to build a data center near the state’s border with Tennessee.
The data center, called MACROHARDRR, which could be a Microsoft name, will be the third in the greater Memphis area.
Musk hopes the combined company can finally help achieve another goal he’s been talking about for a long time — the need to connect other planets in the event of a natural or man-made disaster on Earth.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Musk asked about humanity “a small candle in the great darkness, a small candle of consciousness that can easily be extinguished.”
